Pershore College

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Pershore College is a further educational college based in Pershore, Worcestershire The college has also offered higher education courses since 1993.

1 History
2 Today
3 Alumni
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Formed in 1954 to train horticultural workers in the Vale of Evesham, over the following years it attracted students from overseas and gained an international reputation for its courses and the gardens exhibited at Royal Horticultural Society events, Chelsea Flower Show and Malvern. Pershore College has won Gold, Silver and Bronze Royal Horticultural Society medals at the annual RHS shows at Malvern and Chelsea. The Avonbank house was built in 1810 by the Hudson family, then came into the hands of the Marriott family who last lived in the house in 1941. The house was then used as a hostel for the Women's Land Army, then as a rest home for RAF pilots. Descendents of the Hudson family still live locally in the village of Wick.

[edit] Today

In 1997 Pershore College merged with Hindlip College to form Pershore & Hindlip College, merging again in 1999 with Holme Lacy College to form Pershore Group of Colleges. In August 2007 the Pershore College's Avonbank campus merged with Warwickshire College,^[1] while the Holme Lacy campus merged with Herefordshire College of Technology. The Avonbank campus is undergoing a big investment to improve the campus' facilities, including the student hostel accommodation and the horticultural enterprises on the campus, including the glasshouse department, the plant centre and the plant nursery.

Pershore College is recognised by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) as a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) in horticulture. The Pershore Group of Colleges were recognised by HEEPIlink title as Britain's Greenest College in 2007.

Professor Stefan Buczacki was installed at Pershore College's first Honorary Fellow in 2007 and chairs the Pershore College Horticultural Employers' Group.

[edit] Alumni

Past students include broadcaster Chris Beardshaw who has hosted gardening programmes on the BBC and Channel 4, famed for his work on Gardeners' World. In the mid 90's Guitarist Wurzel from Motorhead also attended the College.